Stimulating the Visual Sense and Developing an Aesthetic Sense: the First Mobiles and Art for the Infant

The first mobiles for the newborn are black and white. This is the first mobile in the Montessori mobile series: the Munari. It was designed by Italian artist, designer and inventor, Bruno Munari (1907-1998).

I also made another black and white mobile from scratch using ballet dancers' silhouettes. I was inspired by Flensted's Hans Christian Andersen Ballet mobile.

As you can see I also printed out a few sets of black and white pictures: images from nature and simple geometric shapes.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).

To make this mobile I used art prints from a postcard book and a beautiful crystal that catches the natural light that comes in through the windows. I change the postcards from time to time but I used only the ones with black and white, primary colors and with simple geometric patterns - babies love simple desings.

I thought it would be a nice transition from the purely black and white into the next mobile in the Montessori mobile series, which has only the 3 primary colors: The Octahedrons Mobile. The octahedron is one of the five "Platonic Solids", named after the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Mark Rothko (1903-1970).
I bought a beautiful art book with reproductions by Mark Rothko because I thought his simple and pristine style would be extremely interesting and pleasing to a baby's eyes; and so it was ;)

I also used reproductions by Yves Klein (1928-1962) and Joan Miró (1893-1983).

The third mobile in the Montessori mobile series: the Gobbi. 

Designed by Italian artist Gianna Gobbi who worked closely with Maria Montessori. Ours were handmade with love in Japan by a Montessori educator. I bought them in red, green, blue, and purple and they are made with 100% silk embroidery thread; we love them all! 

The Dancers mobile. 

This is the fourth mobile in the Montessori mobile series. This is the first mobile I made for Paloma while I was pregnant and preparing the environment and materials. I made it using blue and gold holographic paper. It's my personal favorite!

The Butterfly mobile from Michael Olaf. This beautiful mobile is handmade in Washington. This was a gift from Paloma's Michael Olaf wish list :)

The Flowing Rhythm Rainbow mobile. Designed and made in Denmark by Flensted.

Another Danish mobile, butterflies in primary colors.

"The child who concentrates is immensely happy." 

- Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind)

The purpose of the mobiles and art is to encourage concentration, stimulate the visual sense and develop an aesthetic sense - all of this starting from birth!

"The first essential for the child's development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behaviour. He must find out how to concentrate, and for this he needs things to concentrate upon. This shows the importance of his surroundings, for no one acting on the child from outside can cause him to concentrate. Only he can organize his psychic life."

-Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind p. 202, Ch. 22)

Paloma's Montessori Bedroom

This is what Paloma's bedroom looked like the morning before she was born; her dad and I worked for months in order to prepare what we thought would be the most appropriate environment to welcome her into the world; our world.

As Susan Mayclin Stephenson says in her book, "The Joyful Child. Montessori Global Wisdom from Birth to Three", when a baby is born she is emerging from a dark and muted environment. So it was logical to assume that it would take Paloma some time to adjust to the sights and sounds outside of my womb.

"When a child is visually overstimulated, he often closes his eyes and shuts out the world. It is better to inspire and invite the child to visually explore the environment by soft colors and limited objects than to overwhelm him."

-Susan Mayclin Stephenson 

As a result we paid very much attention to all of the sounds and sights she would be surrounded by, especially during the first few days and weeks after her birth. We protected her from loud sounds, too many visitors and too many colors! As you can see we prepared an environment with extremely soft colors and with very few objects visible.

The environment should, of course, evolve as she grows.

Let the Child be the Guide - Le maître est l'enfant

Great news! A new documentary about Montessori is coming out in movie theaters nationwide in France (and maybe even abroad!) in the fall 2016. Check this out and please help out if you can, there's still time!

Preparation for a New Role

Here I am writing once again, but this time from a new perspective. I am now not only a Montessori teacher but also a Montessori mom! I am hoping to get this blog started again, this time writing about my adventures in starting a Montessori family.

One of the most important things I've learnt since becoming a Montessori educator is that there are three basic pillars that form the basis of education: the prepared adult, the prepared environment, and the child. In this post I'll be talking about the first of these. During my pregnancy I prepared myself as much as I could for the new role I was about to play, even though I believe I somehow started preparing long ago.

Since I am Primary- and Elementary-trained I have always been interested in the 0 to 3 period and on what the Montessori philosophy has to say about it. During my first Montessori teacher training (Primary: 3 to 6) at The Montessori Institute of San Diego our trainer spent some time talking about this and we even attended a conference by Dr. Silvana Montanaro (world-renowned Montessori teacher trainer at the 0 to 3 level and author of the book Understanding the Human Being). It goes without saying that it has had a major impact in my life and on my view of the whole child starting from conception. 

Three years ago I also had the opportunity to attend an introductory one-week 0 to 3 course at the AMI Montessori teacher training center in Paris (Institut Supérieur Maria Montessori). Of course one week is not nearly enough time to learn about all the things one needs to know about this period but it proved an invaluable resource and added value to my Montessori teaching (I was teaching 6 to 10 year-olds at the time) as well as to my personal outlook on life.

While pregnant I was very lucky to have moved to a city not too far from where a 0 to 3 educator holds Montessori workshops for parents-to-be and parents of young children who want to implement the Montessori pedagogy at home from birth. I signed up to a cycle of sessions and was coached in the art of creating a developmentally appropriate environment for my baby.

I read a lot too. I read all of Dr. Montessori's writings and other books recommended by Montessori fellow teachers and trainers, and like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, all the knowledge I had started coming together in my mind. One of the things I realized is that one of the most important aspects of "doing" Montessori in the home lies in the preparation of the future parents for their new roles as the first - and main - educators of the child, as well as in their knowledge of the needs of the child in order to create an appropriate environment. As Silvana Montanaro says in her book:

"The first years of life should be considered fundamental in the literal sense in that they form the basis for the edifice of the personality. In order to provide adequate help in this construction activity, good will and the willingness to work are not enough; we also need the right information." 

(Silvana Q. Montanaro: Understanding the Human Being).

Another excellent resource, albeit of a different kind, happened to be Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) and Janet Lansbury's website in which she writes about the RIE approach to infant care. The RIE approach is based on Emmi Pikler's work which is not only highly compatible but also complementary to Montessori. I highly recommend checking out those websites.

And here is a list of the must-read books I believe encompass the fundamentals of a well-rounded preparation for the early days of a different kind of parenthood:

By Maria Montessori:
      The Absorbent Mind (click here for French edition)
      The Child in the Family (click here for French edition)

By Silvana Q. Montanaro:
      Understanding the Human Being

Others:
      The Joyful Child: Montessori, Global Wisdom for Birth to Three
      by Susan Mayclin Stephenson

      Montessori from the Start: the Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three
      by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jensen

      What's Going On in There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First           Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot

      And for French readers only:
      Pour une enfance heureuse by Catherine Gueguen

About Emmi Pikler's approach to infant care:
      Lóczy: An Unusual Approach to Mothering (click here for French, Spanish)
      by Geneviève Appell and Myriam David

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more!

My family

Montessori Myths Demystified

Montessori Myth #1:

"Children in a Montessori school can do whatever they want, therefore they are undisciplined and chaotic."

When I tell people what I do, 90% of the time they ask me how I can be so patient as to work with children who must be absolutely out of control if we let them do whatever they want. This is the most common misconception that people have about Montessori. In fact it cannot be further from the truth.

Freedom of choice

The basis of the Montessori method is indeed the child's freedom of choice. This kind of freedom is nevertheless relative since the child chooses his activities within an environment where absolutely nothing is left to chance. The environment and its range of activities are thoughtfully planned out and constructed in order to guide the child on a journey of learning through self-discovery.

In a Montessori class the child faces three "levels" of freedom of choice:

- he has the freedom to choose which pedagogical material he will be working with,          
- the freedom to choose who he will work with, if the nature of the work requires a team effort (this is more typical in Elementary), and
- the freedom to work on the chosen activity for as long as he feels the need to.

And all of this, with minimal intervention from the adult. "How is that possible?!" I hear you say. Well, the secret is that all this freedom would never work within a disorganized setting - there is nothing more organized than a Montessori environment.

In fact, when, in Montessori jargon, we talk about freedom of choice, we do not mean "a deliberate abstention from direction", which is the popular definition of a laissez-faire philosophy. Freedom has nothing to do with an irresponsible laissez-faire. Freedom is something that needs to be acquired.

Letting a child do whatever he wants is not the same as setting him free. Freedom is rather a positive construction that takes place when and if there are clearly defined rules in an extremely predictable and organized setting. This means that children are given the freedom to work with any material and for as long as they want, as long as they are using the material in the constructive manner shown by the adult, and not just "in any way they want".

The educator's job in such an environment is to guide the child in his development, which includes the development of his ability to choose freely without damaging the environment and without negatively affecting his peers' rights. From this comes the idea of respect. Respect of others and their rights is what creates a community of peace, which is our most important and ultimate goal as Montessorians.

"What is the greatest sign of success for a teacher? It is to be able to say, 'The children are now working as if I did not exist.' "

- Maria Montessori

Creativity and Self-Assurance

Today when the children arrived, a little girl went straight to the reading corner. She snuggled against a cushion on the couch and started reading a book.

I was greeting everybody as they they arrived, gently guiding them towards work if they didn't yet have anything in mind. 

I approached the girl in the reading corner, hesitant as to whether I should interrupt her or not. I asked her what she was reading. She told me she was reading a book another girl wrote for the class. 

It was a handmade book about pets; it had been beautifully illustrated. It sort of reminded me of the beautiful handwritten and hand-painted ancient books on display at Trinity College in Dublin. It got me deep in thought.

Montessori children are so full of self-confidence and especially creativity! How many children write books?!  And how many then feel so sure of themselves as to display them in the school library?! 

This also made me think of the fact that our Montessori classroom is truly alive. First of all, nobody asked the author to write anything, it wasn't an "assignment". Second, she felt free to "publish" her ideas.

This made me think of the different ways people describe Montessori in different countries. Ever since I moved to France, I have noticed that here people often mention the fact that a good quality Montessori education helps children build their self-confidence. And what is self-confidence?

Self-confidence is a feeling of confidence in oneself and in one's powers and abilities; it's a synonym of self-assuredness, self-esteem and self-trust.
And how can we get anywhere in life if we don't believe in our own capabilities?

Indeed, in a Montessori environment children are given endless opportunities to develop these skills because of three main important aspects which represent the foundation upon which the method is based:

1.- The mixed age groups.

The mixed age groups allow children to play different roles in each three-year cycle. When they first come into the environment they are the youngest who look up to their older peers as their role models - children always learn better from each other than from a seemingly "all-knowing" adult. In their second year they become role models for the younger children while still having the ones who are older as role models too. And finally, in their third year they get to be the ones with the most experience, so they get to do what the older children did to help them when they first came into the environment.

2.- The Material's Inherent Control of Error.

The Montessori pedagogical material has been developed in such a way that the child realizes for himself if he has made a mistake. With certain materials it is simply impossible to make a mistake, and with others it will take time before the child will develop the fine perception to see that something "looks" wrong. More about this on another post.

3.- No Praise, no Exams, no Grading.

Yep, you've read correctly. Because of the control of error, mentioned above, there is no need to judge or evaluate, just as there is no need to praise. This may be shocking to some, but actually the role of the educator is to constantly observe each and every child and make regular notes of their progress - something which they children may not even be aware of. If I notice for example, that a child has not quite mastered a specific skill then I know that child simply needs more time to practice with the material before I move on to what follows. In Montessori children work at their own pace, and that's our motto!
Now, the issue with praise is another controversial aspect of this philosophy. Praising and pampering children for no apparent reason does not actually help them in their construction of a positive self-image because it doesn't guide them in mastering real and useful skills. Only when they are involved in tasks which they are capable of succeeding at do they start to develop a confidence in their real abilities. 

Prepare a learning environment for your children!

Here is an amazing opportunity to learn how to design a child-friendly environment (home, space, classroom, etc.):

Don't forget to check out the website too.